Telemarkeast.com

A community forum for all telemark skiers. A place where telemarkers can get together and share experiences, backcountry and ski area conditions, get free instructional help from professional tele instructors and swap and sell used telemark gear.

Have questions about telemark technique? We have invited seven professional telemark instructors to help out with any questions you may have. If you are a never-ever wondering how to start or an expert tele skier wondering how to polish up that mogul run, here is the place to look.

Good morning - I noticed a new problem for me this weekend on steeper sections of groomers / mixed crud. I have plenty of problems, but this one I am not sure what's happening. Right after I complete a turn, my uphill ski starts chattering and banging into the downhill. I can subdue it if I really focus on putting a lot of weight / pressure there, but it seems excessive. I know I am not "there yet" with how much pressure I put on the back foot so sometimes the rear ski doesn't track like it should, but this was a more violent reaction. It's don't think it's the problem of opening the hip and knee outward (I have that issue too), that seems to affect more the tips of the skis and is more scuffing than banging/chatter.

These are new (to me) skis, the Worth Daily Breads with Axls that were on eBay. Wondering if it's a gear issue (tuning, binding placement, light ski). I did move the pivot on the Axls from the front position to middle to see if that helped, don't think it did. I have Liberty Variants with Axls that I've only once noticed this problem on steeps. That's a heavier ski.

You've correctly diagnosed the root cause as weight/pressure on the trailing ski. It actually brings up a great question about what the difference is between weight and pressure. I think of weight as caused by gravity....the force that is transferred to the ski by the position of your body over the ski, fore/aft, side/side, etc. Weight takes little effort and is very efficient. Pressure is more muscular. You can actively push down on your rear (or front) ski to increase pressure or you can reduce pressure by up-unweighting (e.g. jumping) or down-unweighting (sucking/absorbing). Pressure takes a lot of effort and is far less efficient.

This might be off base but I'm going to suggest that you take a look at where your trailing foot is when your ski isn't tracking properly. Do you get "spread out" with your rear foot more that 1 or 1.5 boot lengths behind your front foot? If so, you have no "weight" on it and the only force you're applying to the ski is through muscular pressure.

If this is the case then you'll want to try to shorten your fore/aft stance to pull that rear foot back in under your body. Before I go into possible activities to try to help, let me know if this sounds like it might be a factor in your skiing..

I'll take a look this weekend and see if I'm getting spread out on that terrain. That's very likely, as the last lesson I took the focus was a more compact stance. And what you said about weight and pressure does make sense. If it's pressure, then it's likely uneven, and could be causing the ski to grab and release.

Super helpful tips and video, and I've been practicing. But the biggest source of the problem turned out to be the binding was mounted 2" too far forward. Couldn't control the back of the ski. Moved it back and it's much better. Still, lots of practice needed, so I appreciate the help.

Bushwhacker, the drill that I had in mind is called a white pass turn. Google it for a video example. Start off doing it in alpine, not tele. It's a great drill for establishing weight and pressure on your uphill ski very early in the turn. Progress to where you finish the turn in a tele position.